# Wind chill factor??
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 15, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674 "2004-01-15T23:31:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@UnclePoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnclePoo)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/1 "2004-01-15T23:31:05Z")
I saw a little bit on the news on how they figure out the wind chill factor but what does “feel like” mean? Do you have to be human to feel the “feels like” temperture?
-or-
If it is 34 degrees out and the wind chill is making it “feel like” 28 degrees will water freeze??
😕😕😕
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/2 "2004-01-15T23:34:10Z")
It can; water can lose latent heat of evaporation just like a human can (well, not _just_ like, but evaporation can cause water to freeze when the ambient temperature is above 0C.
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/3 "2004-01-16T00:11:12Z")
No, actually.
Wind chill refers to the loss of _body_ heat in a controlled environment. Your core body temperature will drop faster in a wind than in still conditions, but nothing is going to _freeze_ unless the temperature is below freezing.
Second law of thermodynamics, IIRC.
LM, BS Meteorology
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/4 "2004-01-16T00:12:52Z")
You don’t have to be human, but being warm blooded helps. Wind makes us feel colder than the reading on a thermometer because wind increases the rate at which a body loses heat. The result the formula used for the wind chill factor will produce is just an estimate of course.
I don’t believe **Mangetout** ’s statement that evaporation will help water to freeze above 0, but it will help remove heat from water at a faster rate.
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/5 "2004-01-16T00:21:36Z")
From [How Stuff Works](http://www.howstuffworks.com/question70.htm).
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/6 "2004-01-16T00:30:37Z")
Wind chill in winter is perfectly anologous to humidity in summer. Wind chill makes it harder for you to retain body heat (i.e. ‘feel’ colder) and humidity makes it harder to dissipate body heat (‘feel’ hotter).
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/7 "2004-01-16T00:52:03Z")
> [@x-ray vision](#):
>
> I don’t believe **Mangetout** ’s statement that evaporation will help water to freeze above 0, but it will help remove heat from water at a faster rate.
I’m not a physicist, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of account of ice being made by cooling by evaporation of water; the latent heat of evaporation is greater than the latent heat of fusion by a factor of about 6.8, so it sounds (to my uneducated ear, at least) possible.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/8 "2004-01-16T00:57:58Z")
WCF is supposed to quantify the effect of cold weather on exposed flesh. Right now where I live it’s -12F and the wind is blowing about 10 kts. Exposed flesh is rather scarce just now, so the advertized wind chill factor of -28 (or whatever it is) may be mostly hype.
OTOH, it is darn cold.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wind-chill-factor/224674/9 "2004-01-16T01:04:54Z")
From [here](http://www.attachemag.com/archives/08-03/informed/infos1.htm) - not a particularly academic source - (I do hope we’re not going to have another thread like that one about jumping cats):
> [@](#):
>
> Ancient Egyptians cooled both food and living spaces by making ice. They filled shallow clay trays with water, which iced over at night in the dry climate because of rapid evaporation (even though temperatures never got extremely cold).